The setting sun scattered orange-yellow glow, and on a dirt road between the hills, a yellow cloud of smoke rolled from south to north, and a jeep in the yellow smoke drove quickly, and the yellow body was hung with a thick layer of dust. The pen "Fun" www.biquge.info car galloped with its own longer and longer shadow, hidden in the depths of the hills, blank and bare hills, and sometimes suddenly swept up by the wind a column full of dust and soared into the sky. Then, when they reached the heights, they scattered and merged with the hills.

The wind whipped up a tall pile of debris and dust, and at the end of the sky in the distance, blue clouds were still faintly visible, and the paths between the dirt slopes sometimes loomed in the background, making motorists more cautious.

When the sky finally darkened, the temperature began to slowly drop, and the people in the car took military blankets and put them on their laps.

In the back seat of the car, an officer in a yellow tweed colonel uniform seemed to be asleep with his eyes closed, because there was no sound in the car except the roar of the engine.

Wang Yuanzhi, chief of staff of the commander of the 11th Division, who was sitting in the passenger seat, turned his head to look at Hu Lian, who was sitting in the back seat, and wanted to speak several times, but in the end he swallowed it back.

The driver of the car was a young man in his twenties, and his eyes were always on the front. A layer of dust fell from his thick black hair, and his somewhat dirty face, dark eyebrows and chapped lips, and his body covered with a thin layer of dust showed that he had been driving for a long time, and at this time he was only single-mindedly driving his car, and the white hills and starry sky were reflected one after another.

A few hours after leaving the theater headquarters, Hu Lian only felt that his lips were a little dry and cracked, his tongue was hard, and his teeth moved, and the sand that was blown into his lips by the strong wind rattled in his mouth, and he snorted several times before spitting the sand out of his mouth.

Seeing this, Wang Yuanzhi hurriedly took out a water bottle from the passenger seat and handed it to Hu Lian.

"Master, drink your saliva!"

Hu Lian took a big sip of the kettle, and the hot feeling in his throat disappeared, replaced by a cold and comfortable feeling, and for a while he only felt that the water was really luscious and abnormal.

When Hu Lian returned the kettle to Wang Yuanzhi, Wang Yuanzhi asked: "Division, what task did Chief Wei assign to our division, and why have you been so sad since you came out of the headquarters?" ”

Hu Lian glanced at Wang Yuanzhi lightly and then said, "It's rare that you can endure to ask me at this time." ”

Wang Yuanzhi scratched his head a little embarrassedly: "It's not that the master is closing his eyes to recuperate, so he doesn't dare to disturb." However, something that can make the division scratch its head must be something unexpected, and Chief Wei must have given our division a big problem, right? ”

Hu Lian pursed his lips and nodded: "It's indeed a big problem, this time our division's task is to capture Hengling Pass." According to intelligence, it is the 33rd Infantry Wing of the 213th Division of the Japanese Army stationed at Hengling Pass, so it is very difficult for us to take Hengling Pass. ”

Wang Yuanzhi asked puzzledly: "Sir, what is the origin of this 33rd Division, why haven't I heard of it, why are you so worried?" ”

Hu Lian explained: "It's normal that you haven't heard of this division, because this division is a pack horse division that has only been established for less than three years. But the commander of this unit, as you should have heard, is called Sakurai Setsuzo. ”

Hearing this name, Wang Yuanzhi couldn't help but let out an exclamation: "Sakurai Province three...... It's him? ”

"Yes, that's him!" Hu Lian nodded heavily: "This guy is not a fuel-efficient lamp, in the battle of Ganxiang and other battles the year before last, the division under the leadership of Sakurai Province III carried out a brutal killing of the people of JX, in order to support the Japanese army in the Battle of Nakajo Mountain, the division except for the 33rd Infantry Regiment Araki Detachment in the Anyi area, the rest of the troops were led by the division commander Sakurai Province 3rd Lieutenant General, arrived in North China in early April last year, with the North China Front 1st Army to fight, committed a lot of crimes. I think the most troublesome thing is that most of the 33rd Division's strength is composed of the retired 2nd Division, so the combat effectiveness of the division cannot be measured by an ordinary garrison division. ”

Wang Yuanzhi pondered for a while before saying, "Master, no matter what. No matter how powerful the combat effectiveness of the 33rd Division is, it is composed of retired soldiers, and it is certainly not as good as a standing division like the 2nd Division, and the most important thing for us now is to find out the deployment of the Japanese army at Hengling Pass and the surrounding situation, otherwise it will be troublesome to suddenly kill a Japanese army from behind us once the fight starts. ”

Hu Lian shook his head, "You don't have to worry about this, our flanks are protected by friendly troops, so there shouldn't be any major incidents." ”

"Allies?" Wang Yuanzhi smiled bitterly, the most unreliable thing in these years is probably the friendly army, if it is the central government, it would be better, after all, everyone is from the Huangpu department, and everyone helps each other for the sake of alumni on weekdays, but if you encounter those non-Huangpu miscellaneous troops, I am afraid that the first thing to watch out for is these so-called friendly troops, these guys who have milk are mothers may not know when they will slip away with oil on the soles of their feet.

Hu Lian understood what Wang Yuanzhi meant as soon as he saw his expression, and he explained: "Now our left and right flanks are the first and second garrison divisions of the Third Army respectively, so if there are no major changes, we don't have to worry about the safety of the flanks. ”

"It turned out to be a unit of the Third Army." Wang Yuanzhi showed a look of surprise in his eyes when he heard this, and couldn't help but exclaim: "If this is the case, then our flank is naturally An Ruo Taishan, but what I don't understand is that since there are troops of the Third Army nearby, why didn't Commander Wei order these two troops to recover Hengling Pass, why did we let our newly arrived troops do this work?" ”

Hu Lian didn't speak, but just glanced at Wang Yuanzhi for a long time, with indescribable meaning in his eyes.

And Wang Yuanzhi is not a stupid person, he understands it with a turn of his head. It's not that Wei Lihuang doesn't want the people of the Third Army to recover Hengling Pass, but he can't send them. Although it was the first time he came to Nakajo Mountain, he had heard a lot of rumors about the battle. The Third Army has already been in the limelight in this battle, and if it continues like this, where will Chairman Chiang and the Central Committee put their faces?

The 11th Army of Hu Lian and Wang Yuanzhi belonged to Chen Cheng's 18th Army, which was the earliest and longest in history among the most capable units of the National Army. It is also the beloved descendant of Chairman Chiang and Chen Cheng. Its backbone are all graduates of the Whampoa Military Academy, and they can set an example when fighting the enemy, which can be called the trump card in the main force. It is also one of the most famous troops in the Anti-Japanese War, and the most famous record is the Songhu Luodian tug-of-war (Commander Luo Zhuoying led the 18th Army to defeat the 3rd Division commanded by Matsui Shigen, which lasted nearly a month, and the Japanese army fought for this projectile land, and thousands of people died in the battle, and the entire Luodian was bloody, which was called "flesh and blood mill" by the Japanese army).

The Eighteenth Army is so famous, and the 11th Division led by Hu Lian is the most capable unit of the Eighteenth Army, so it is natural that such an arduous and glorious task of recovering Hengling Pass falls on the head of such a well-established army as the 11th Division.

Thinking of this, Wang Yuanzhi's heart was naturally relieved. But then came a wave of worry.

"Sir, I heard that some time ago, the Third Army fought fiercely with the Japanese themselves, let's just go over like this now, don't they have an opinion?"

Hu Lian knew Wang Yuanzhi's worries, the Third Army had been fighting with the Japanese himself for more than a month, and it was finally about to produce results, but he let the 11th Division pick peaches like this, and he also had to cover for them who picked peaches, this kind of thing can't stand anyone, right?

Hu Lian didn't say much about this, but said lightly, "There are some things you don't understand." Then there was silence again.

Half an hour later, the jeep was on a slightly flat dirt road, and there were more cars on the road, most of them Willis jeeps painted in grass green camouflage. Seeing such a situation, not only Wang Yuanzhi, but even Hu Lian was a little surprised. Cars are still a rarity these days, and it is estimated that there are no more than twenty jeeps in Hu Lian's 11th Division and even all the jeeps of the 18th Army, which are generally used by division-level generals, but now there are more jeeps seen along the way than their entire 18th Army, which also surprises the two of them.

There are more vehicles, and so are the checkpoints. Hu Lian's car did not pause except when passing through the checkpoint, and as the roadside villages and palmetto trees became denser and denser, the jeep was in front of a series of tents covered with camouflage nets, and there were endless wire fences around the tents. The barbed wire fence stretched out in both north and south directions. Disappear behind the hills.

"Hiss......"

Wang Yuanzhi gasped, during the war years, all metal was a Jinqiao item, and Huaxia was a country with almost zero industry, even iron wire, a common item in Western countries, was also a scarce material for sliding down. Even though the 11th Division is the elite of the national army, it does not have the luxury of using barbed wire to enclose the bottom of the barracks. How do you have to be rich to do that? Rao is Wang Yuanzhi boasted that he had been in the army for many years, and he couldn't help but be a little surprised when he saw such a scene, and turned his head to Hu Liandao.

"Shizao, judging from this posture, except for the troops under the command of Chief Su, I am afraid that there is no army in the whole country that can be so luxurious, and they even use barbed wire as a wall, and they are not afraid that the surrounding people will strip these things off overnight."

Wang Yuanzhi is telling the truth, today's Huaxia is too poor, to the point where there is almost nothing but people. Even such a ferocious unit as the Japanese army had a headache when maintaining law and order, and the most typical example was how to prevent the local people from picking up the railroad tracks for those garrisons stationed in the rear.

Railroad tracks are a good thing, whether they are used to make farm tools, knives, or even pots and pans, they are very good materials, so the local farmers often take advantage of the night when the whole village goes out to pick up the railroad tracks, and the whole village goes out. A few hundred people could strip miles of railroad tracks in one night. In order to deal with the increasingly serious problem of cutting the railroad tracks, the Japanese army had to set up a large number of garrison troops to guard the railway, and the more areas they occupied, the more troops they needed to stay behind, which was also one of the reasons why although the Japanese army had more and more troops in China, the generals on the front line felt more and more that the troops were not enough, and the troops in the rear involved too many of their troops.

"Master, shall we go in and have a look?" Seeing Hu Lian looking at the military camp on the side of the road, Wang Yuanzhi asked.

"No need!" Hu Lian retracted his gaze and turned his gaze to the front again: "Let's go back to the army first, the time left for us by Chief Wei is only two days, and we will launch an attack on the Japanese army the day after tomorrow, if we are not prepared, I am afraid that we will let the friendly and neighboring troops see the joke." ”

More than ten minutes later, Hu Lian's jeep finally arrived at the location of the 11th Division.

After several reorganizations, the 11 th Division at this time had three infantry regiments, as well as more than 13,000 artillery battalions, baggage battalions, engineer battalions, cavalry battalions, and firepower battalions directly under its command.

The division headquarters of the 11th Division was built behind an inconspicuous hill, and when Hu Lian came to the division headquarters, he happened to see that the sappers of the engineer battalion were moving some branches to camouflage the division headquarters. After seeing the actions of the engineer battalion, Hu Lian couldn't help but feel a little bitter when he thought of the barracks camouflaged with camouflage nets just now.

Hu Lian bent down and entered the division headquarters, and saw more than a dozen staff officers and people from the call section setting up antennas and radio stations, and in the middle was a small and delicate Enigma cipher machine, two guards and an operator were guarding it. Ever since Su Jin gave the Chongqing government more than 100 Enigma cipher machines, Chairman Chiang immediately felt that the security level of his own radio had been raised by several grades. Although the previous radio code was often changed, it was still deciphered by the Japanese army from time to time, but since the installation of the Enigma cipher machine, the Chongqing government has never had a telegram deciphered, and the Nationalist government has also set this cipher machine as a top secret. In addition to the major theaters, only units at or above the level of the Central Army can be equipped with a cipher machine, and there will never be more than 10 units at the division level that can be equipped with this kind of cipher machine. And each cipher machine will be guarded 24 hours a day, and once it is critical, they will blow up the Enigma cipher machine as soon as possible. (To be continued.) )